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Who Are Our Member Farmers?

The KCCSAC is comprised of urban, suburban, and rural farmers located within a 100-mile radius of where the Missouri and Kansas rivers join, in the center of the Kansas City metro. Coalition farms run the gamut from rehabilitated vacant lots in low-income neighborhoods to several-hundred-acre rural farms which have been handed down through generations. Our member farmers range in age from their mid-20′s through their mid-70′s. Although most of the KCCSAC’s member farms focus on offering produce, starting in 2009 we introduced year-round meat CSA’s (Parker Farms, Homespun Hill Farm, and Schenker Family Farms (new member in 2011).

Farmers wishing to join the KCCSAC must complete an application and interview process, held annually in the Autumn and Winter, to ensure their ability to provide the highest quality foods and customer service. In an effort to promote good land stewardship and respectful, responsible growing practices, the Coalition requires that all member farmers espouse organic or “better-than-organic” practices. In acknowledgment of individual farmers’ circumstances, however, we do not require our member farmers to be certified organic.

The KCCSAC encourages direct relationships between CSA members and their farmers. For that reason, the KCCSAC encourages those considering joining a CSA to directly contact those farmers whose CSA’s would likely fit their lifestyles — AT THIS TIME, THE KCCSAC DOES NOT SIGN EATERS UP WITH CSA’s. Joining a CSA creates a contract and bond between a farmer and his/her CSA members. The KCCSAC is not a part of this contract. Therefore, if a CSA member has concerns regarding the CSA of which he/she is a member, he/she needs to take those concerns first directly to his/her CSA farmer. Although the KCCSAC does what it can to foster communications within Kansas City’s CSA community, the KCCSAC is neither a certifying nor regulatory agency and cannot be held responsible for disputes between CSA farmers and their members. That said, if an overwhelming number of complaints regarding a coalition farm comes to the KCCSAC’s attention, such complaints will be looked into and addressed by the KCCSAC.

Although after gaining membership in the KCCSAC we require our member farmers to provide annually-updated information regarding their growing practices, which we share with the public, the KCCSAC (an all-volunteer organization) does not have the resources to inspect and certify our member farmers’ growing and animal treatment practices or to verify any other claims.  Nor can we guarantee our farmers’ product quality or performance.  The KCCSAC’s mission is to provide people with the information they need to build relationships based on trust with those who produce their food, so if you have questions about what is meant by any particular term in a listing, please contact the farmer directly.

Click on the name of a farm in our member list to learn more about that farm’s CSA. If you are a local CSA farmer who would like to be included on this list, please feel free to contact us.